Tobacco Documents Online

The Tobacco Institute,, Inc., 1776 K St., N. W. ,'r'ashington,, D. C. 20006 I Contact: JqiTliamlK'loepfer„ Jr. Office202/296-8434 Home 301/229-0414 January 25, 1971 FOR' SIMULTANEOUS USE W'ITH' 1971 SURGEON GEidERF1L' S' REPORT ON SMOKING AND HEALTH' A cigarette industry spokesman said today the new opinion onn smoking and'health prepared,for the U. S., Surgeon General "provides _ more conflicting scientific evidence on the subject than any'previous Surgeon General has exposed." The president of The Tobacco Institute, Horace R. Kornegay, said'th,at "it is nevertheless regrettable that the report was pre- pared and authored by the staff of the National Clearinghouse for Smokingiand Health, which has the miission of redluc'ing the number of cigarette smokers through anti-smokinglactiviti!es,, rather than by an impartial scientilfic body. "H'owever,, they have shown that,they are aware of criticisms of previous reports which, they prepared--charges of extreme bi'as and one-sided reportingiof scientific literature. "Although many scientific studies wliich disagree with Surgeon General Steinfeldi's opinions are cited in this report," Kornegay said„ "the!do:cument still omits--or in major instances masks and misinterprets--other conflicting stud'ies of extreme significance,to scientific researchers." As one example of an omission he cited a discussion by the Surgeon General of babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy. ~f w .A

-2-• "Dr. Stelpeld" s compilation failed C6' make any refer~_;.r_e to the finding announcedlin 1970 by the National A'cad'emy of Sc:._n-s that 'smoking is not signiificantly associated wi~th,excess fetal or neonatal mortality or the incidence of congenital maLformation, "" Kornegay said. "On the other hand'„ it is of i~nterest to note that the Surgeon General has referred'to studies reportingithat although babies born to smoking mothers wea!gh:6.1 ounces less, on the aver- age, they grow more rapidly in the first six months of life; that their surviva,l rate ils better than for low-weight babies born of nonsmoking mothers; and that smoking mothers have less incidence of' toxemia of pregnancy,, "Oddly enough,, the smoke inhalation experiment involving beagle dogs, wh,ich the American Cancer Society trumpeted as a landmark nearly a year ago,, is mentioned only briefly in this new report--and as an example of the bias of those who prepared it, the report claims worse damage to the d'og`s' lungs than even the experi- menters did when they finally reported their findings in a medical journal." - In discussing heastdisease, Kornegay said, Dr., Steinfeld's -report "unaccountably omitted a principal finding of a major inter- national coronary heart di!sease study with respect to cigarette smoking, which documents evidence contrary to his own view. "As publishpd'by the AmericaniHeart Associationilast year; Kornegay said, "this study reported that 'cigarette smoking cannot bz f --~+ '~.

-3'- involved as an explanation' of the reported d'iTierences am.ong riational. populations in coronary heart dilsease incidence." Conunenting on the overalli effect of the report,, Kornegay also observed: "It is clear from thew law which required this report to be made to t}ie,Congress by January 1 at the latest, and from its legislative h:istory,, that the report should,have identi~fied!the areas of research,which,are es,sential to resolve the smoking-health con- troversy. It fails to do so. "it does,, however, go part of the way toward this Congres- sional goal in its multitude of observations regardiing, gaps in scientific knowledge in many aspects of'smoking and health. But the Congress had called upon the Secretary of Health, to:"expedite such id'entification in a cooperative effort between the cigarette industry and the Department in order that priorities be set for closing these gaps.' "It may also be encour3g,ing for the scientific community that Dr. Steinfeld has not espoused'or repeated the imaginary statistical projections put forth,by his predecessors as to "excess deaths' or 'days lost from work' by cigarette!smokers. "All in all,, it is clear to us that IYr., Steinfeld recognizes the differiing, opinions of hi~s coIl'~eag,ues in the medical com-nunity. The sooner these differences are re:solved by diligent application, of adequate funds and the ingenuity of scientists, the better..

-4- "bn a neg,*Eive note, th.e I circumstanAsurrounding di.,tzi- bution to news media of the Surgeon General "s report were most peculiar and without precedent.: It was given out to selected reporters prior to its approval in the Department of Health, Education and Wel- fare, evidently in the interests of maxi'rAzing news coverage. Having learned, of this, our effort to obtain a copy fromthe Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health,, which made the distribution, was unsuccessful. "We are grateful to newsmen who:sought our vieo;s on the repor:t, and afforded us:an opportunity to read it initially. We wil'.l certainly continue to make a close review of the dbcument after its official publication." #W ~